In its six-month lobbying campaign last year, United Company Rusal and Norilsk Nickel delivered a blunt message to Indonesian officials: We will only invest billions of dollars in smelters if you ban bauxite and nickel ore exports.
Read more at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/23/indonesia-minerals-idUSL3N0M22BA20140323
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s government and miners are discussing a deal to immediately increase royalties while retaining a 10-year stability clause on existing projects in the copper-rich nation.
Read more at: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-03-21/congo-s-government-closer-to-deal-with-miners-on-changes-to-code
A day after Jinchuan Group declared a force majeure on copper concentrate deliveries, a source with direct knowledge of the situation has told Metal Bulletin that the company will prioritise nickel production over copper.
“Following a leadership discussion, our current strategy is to give nickel production priority and postpone copper production as nickel prices are high and more profitable now,” the source said.
“We don’t expect any serious consequences as a result of the current situation, partly because any sanctions would be a double-edged sword, and it’s not clear who will get hurt more,” Vladimir Potanin said. “But we were not surprised and we are reasonably prepared [for further sanctions].”
Read more at: http://online.wsj.com/article/DN-CO-20140320-004663.html
The global lithium battery market was is $5.1 billion in 2012 and is estimated to reach $11.3 billion by 2018, growing at a CAGR of 13.0% from 2013 to 2018. The high demand across the industries such as automotive and consumer electronics will increase overall materials consumption. The electric vehicles are expected to be the key revenue generators for global lithium battery market.
Read more at: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16734927-lithium-battery-market-worth-113-billion-by-2018
Graphite, lithium, rare earths and potash companies were among the industrial minerals companies which gathered in Toronto this week for the Prospectors and Developers Association Canada (PDAC) congress.
There was, without a doubt, an extreme shift in sentiment on the floor. Although there were fewer attendees — this year 25,122 people attended, compared to 30,147 attendees in 2013 — and less exhibitors, the mood was decidedly less gloomy.
Not only were attendees more upbeat, but the level of engagement was more serious. Developers in the industry can no longer get away with claiming to be the biggest and the best in the industry without backing up their claims with cold hard facts.
Read more at: http://www.indmin.com/Article/3317164/PDAC-14-A-mood-shift-as-paper-plays-fall-to-the-ground.html
A team of technical experts from CVMR® Corporation has produced battery grade Lithium Carbonate from low grade Lithium brine deposits. Based on their work it has been proven that low grade, as low as 2000 ppm, ore can be processed to produce battery grade Lithium Carbonate. The initial economic estimation of the process are quite encouraging, but CVMR® executives believe that further tests have to be conducted to validate this process.
The team was able to achieve this mile-stone with a combination of ore beneficiation techniques and processing techniques. Implementing new ideas in the beneficiation and processing techniques, the team was able to reject major silicate fractions with minimal loss of Lithium and overcome the slime/clay interference in the recovery process to produce this result. The team expects that they can improve the recovery, and reduce the reagent consumption of the process in the near future to make the process even more economically viable.
Since January, when Indonesia went through with its plan to ban unprocessed ore exports, nickel prices have been on the rise due to concerns about the metal’s supply.
Now, another factor is exacerbating those supply concerns and pushing nickel prices up even further. Specifically, London Metal Exchange nickel for three-month delivery yesterday rose to $16,230 per metric ton (MT) after Europe and the United States imposed sanctions on Russia. That’s not only an 11-month high, but also a gain of more than 20 percent since January 9 — “the definition of a bull market,” as per The Wall Street Journal.
Read more at: http://nickelinvestingnews.com/6299-nickel-price-bull-market-indonesia-russia.html
OTTAWA, ONTARIO- Northern Graphite Corporation announces that it has developed and successfully tested a proprietary process for coating spherical graphite which is the final step before it can be used as an anode material in lithium ion batteries. SPG is manufactured from the flake graphite concentrate produced by graphite mines. Prices range from $3,500 per tonne uncoated to over $10,000 per tonne for coated SPG.
Lithium battery cell testing of Northern’s coated SPG indicates a higher total capacity and slightly better first cycle efficiency than the commercial materials which were tested. Northern’s SPG has a reversible capacity of 368 mAh/g which is very close to the theoretical maximum of 372 mAh/g. Dr. Edward Buiel, founder of Coulometrics,LLC and Northern’s partner in developing the coating procedure, stated that: “Large flake graphite from the Bissett Creek deposit has a uniquely pristine crystal structure. The low degree of disorder requires little or no thermal processing and naturally leads to a high degree of reversible capacity for LiB applications. The large pristine flakes also have natural advantages in terms of battery purification and yield during spheronizing that can lead to lower production costs.”
Read more at: http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20140319-907272.html
Australia’s export credit agency is one of nearly 20 banks whose commitment to fund Rio Tinto’s Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia is close to expiring, demonstrating the impact that delays are having on the giant copper and gold project.
A plan to expand Oyu Tolgoi has been delayed by disagreements with the Mongolian government, and funding commitments from some commercial banks for stage two of the mine are due to expire within a fortnight.
Rio Tinto secured $US4.2 billion worth of funding for the project from a collection of development banks and commercial banks last year, with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation leading the way with a commitment to lend $US1.4 billion.
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